Alex started following the work of 2 people.
Alex started following the work of 2 people.
Alex started following the work of Amin Samman, University Of Birmingham, POLSIS.
Post-Doc, Social Anthropology
ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow
About
I consider myself an interdisciplinary researcher, having studied English Literature as an undergraduate and Development Studies for my Masters, before completing my PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester under the supervision of Profs. John Gledhill and Lúcia Sá. The interdisciplinary nature of my training has lead me to the research that I am currently engaged upon as an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow.
My doctoral research focused on Latin America’s largest social movement and how, in a period of marked socio-economic transition, the Landless Workers' Movement of Brazil (MST) has adapted to the evolving aspirations and personal ambitions of its members. Flags, backpacks, hats, t-shirts, songbooks, political texts, teaching materials, newsletters, stickers, police brutality, and dramatic performances constitute parts of the lived, daily experience of an MST member and in 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork in this milieu, my work drew analyses of cultural politics, gender, and organisational evolution, contextualised by issues of agrarian reform and the tensions between social capital and Marxist political economy.
This research offers insight into how the aspirations of individuals are structurally mediated by an organisation which believes that its role, influence, and very existence is premised upon an intact collective identity. From within this schema, this research points to understandings as to how intergenerational transfers of power are central to the lives of grassroots members and how the 'landless' identity, central to the foundation of the movement, has increasingly become perceived to be a leadership directed project.
Rather than affirming a binary opposition however between members and leaders, this research seeks to illustrate the diversity of actors involved in such structures as the MST, and through following individual 'career' trajectories, make plain how actors from vastly different backgrounds utilise contrasting spaces within the movement's structure to further their personal agendas. For some therefore, tensions between self-expression and collective empowerment are not keenly felt but for others, including some female members of the movement, situations can become more complex, and these processes of negotiation are central to this research's general conclusions.
One of the most interesting areas that I did not have time to fully investigate in my doctoral research was the interaction between the MST and the mass media, and since completing my PhD, I have become interested in how, more widely, social movements interact with television, radio, and print journalism. Building on my work in Brazil, where mass media, similarly to Europe, has undergone a process of consolidation, (corporations such as Globo, or News International for example), the manner in which reporting is conducted on the 'radical' politics that some social movements put forward, seems ever more important, particularly when mainstream politics is perceived to have become ever more ideologically homogenous. In the UK for example, it is striking that the notion that income tax be applied without exception to all citizens has become a 'radical' agenda, espoused not by mainstream political parties, but exclusively by social movements like UK Uncut. If therefore, 'radical' politics is increasingly the domain of social movements, how mass media report on their politics is of great significance. My postdoctoral research will examine these issues in Brazil with a view to hopefully applying any theory to contexts in the UK and Europe.
